April 09
1731
Robert Jenkins’s ear was cut off, sparking the War of Jenkins’s Ear between Spain and England.
1865
Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.
1914
The first full-color film, The World, The Flesh and the Devil, was shown in London.
1939
Contralto Marian Anderson, after being denied performing at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., gave a concert at the Lincoln Memorial.
1942
American and Philippine troops on Bataan were overwhelmed by Japanese forces during World War II. The “Bataan Death March” began soon after.
1959
NASA announced the selection of America’s first astronauts, including Alan Shepard and John Glenn.
1963
Winston Churchill became the first honorary U.S. citizen.
1992
Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega was convicted of drug and racketeering charges.
2003
American Marines pulled down Saddam Hussein’s statue in Baghdad after U.S. commanders declared his rule ended.
2005
Britain’s Prince Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles.
Birthdays
April 9
Paul Robeson
Pronunciation: [rOb´sun]
1898–1976, American actor and bass singer, born in Princeton, N.J.
The son of a runaway slave who became a minister, Robeson graduated first from Rutgers (1919), where he was an All-American football player, and then from Columbia Univ. law school (1923).
Charles Baudelaire
poet (1821)
Eadweard Muybridge
photographer (1830)
J. William Fulbright
senator (1905)
Jean-Paul Belmondo
actor (1933)